'A book must be an ice-axe to break the seas frozen inside our soul.' - Franz Kafka

Metamorphosis tells the tale of Gregor Samsa, a young salesman, who wakes up one day to find he has turned into 'a kind of giant bug'. Samsa has been a model of virtue for years, single-handedly supporting his parents and sister, but suddenly he finds himself an outcast in his own home, facing a world in which he no longer has a place.

Both harrowing and humorous, Metamorphosis is a strange, subtle, and moving novella which everyone should read.

Franz Kafka (1883-1924) was one of the most influential writers of the 20th century, born into a middle-class Jewish family in Prague. His name has become a byword for alienation and guilt and his harrowing yet humorous work features individuals in an impersonal and bureaucratic world over which they have increasingly little power.